GM TECNOLOGY IS THERE A FUTURE BEYOND IT ?
By
BY NATHAN BATALION, ND We are confronted with what is undoubtedly the single most potent technology the world has ever known more powerful even than atomic energy. Yet it is being released throughout our environment and deployed with superficial or no risk assessments - as if no one needs to worry an iota about its unparalleled powers to harm life as we know it - and for all future generations .
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What is called "biotechnology" is a vital issue that impacts all of us. Largely between 1997 and 1999, genetically modified (GM) food ingredients suddenly appeared in 2/3rds of all US processed foods. This food alteration was fueled by a single Supreme Court ruling. It allowed, for the first time, the patenting of life forms for commercialization. Since then thousands of applications for experimental genetically-modified (GM) organisms, including quite bizarre GMOs, have been filed with the US Patent Office alone, and many more abroad. Furthermore an economic war broke out to own equity in firms that legally claimed such patent rights or the means to control not only genetically modified organisms but vast reaches of human food supplies. This has been the behind-thescenes and key factor for some of the largest and rapid agrichemical firm mergers in history. The merger of Pioneer Hi-Bed and Dupont (1997), Novartis AG and AstraZeneca PLC (2000), plus Dow's merger with Rohm and Haas (2001) are three prominent examples, Few consumers are aware this has been going on and is ever continuing. Yet if you recently ate soya sauce in a Chinese restaurant, munched popcorn in a movie theatre, or indulged in an occasional candy bar - you've undoubtedly ingested this new type of food. You may have, at the time, known exactly how much salt, fat and carbohydrates were in each of these foods because regulations mandate their labeling for dietary purposes. But you would not know if the bulk of these foods, and literally every cell had been genetically altered! In just those three years, as much as 1/4th of all American agricultural lands or 70-80 million acres were quickly converted to raise genetically-modified (GM) food and crops. And in the race to increase GM crop production verses organics, the former is winning.
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FROM HYBRIDIZATION TO GMOs Another challenging phenomenon to face in our modern world is that of hybridization. It seems to have worked so very successfully in some commercial realms, and as a major application of Gregor Mendel's revolutionary Gene Theory. Mendel offered a logical extension of the larger mechanical worldview. Just as we create factory assembly lines for manufacturing inanimate products, why can't we also manufacture living organisms, and using the same or similar principles? Why not take this assembly-line process to the next logical and progressive level? What's wrong then with the "advance" of genetic engineering? No doubt, with hybridizations conscious life is manipulated. But living organisms continue to make some primary genetic decisions amid limited selections. We can understand this Ipsum with an analogy. There is an immense difference between being a matchmaker- and inviting two people to a dinner party, to meet and see if they are compatible. This differs essentially from forcing their meeting and union or a violent date rape. The former act may be divine, and the latter considered criminal. The implication is that biotechnology involves vital moral issues in regard to the whole of life in nature. With biotechnology, roses are no longer crossed with just roses. They are mated with pigs, tomatoes with oak trees, fish with asses, butterflies with worms, orchids with snakes. The technology that makes this all possible is called biolistics - a gunshot-like violence that pierces the nuclear membrane of cells. This essentially violates not just the core chambers of life (physically crossing nuclear membranes) but the conscious-choice principle that is part of living nature's essence. Some also compare it to the violent crossing of territorial borders of countries, subduing inhabitants against their will. What will happen if this technology is allowed to spread? Fifty years ago few predicted that chemical pollution would cause so much vast environmental harm. Now nearly 1/3rd of all species are threatened with extinction (and up to half of all plant species and half of all mammals). Few also knew that cancer rates would skyrocket during this same period. Nowadays approximately 41% on average of Americans can expect cancer in their lifetime.
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AFTER READING THE TEXT CAREFULLY PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:
WHO IS INTERESTED IN CONTROL MOST OF HUMAN FOOD SUPLIES AND THEREFORE OWN PATENTS RIGHTS ON GM PRODUCTS ?
DO FOOD LABELLING INFORM YOU IF WHAT YOU ARE EATING HAS BEEN GENETICALLY MODIFIED ? WHY DO YOU THINK THEY TRY TO HIDE THIS BASIC INFORMATION TO THE CONSUMER ?
EXPLAIN THE CONCEPTS OF HYBRIDIZATION AND BIOLISTICS.
WHY IS IT THAT BIOTECHNOLOGY IMPLIES “MORAL ISSUES” ?
WHY ARE GM PRODUCTS HARMFUL FOR THE SOIL ? AND FOR THE PEOPLE ?
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AFTER READING THAT, ARE YOU GOING TO BE MORE AWARE OF WHAT YOU EAT? WHAT CAN YOU DO AS A CONSUMER TO AVOID GM FOOD?